I was Brought to my Senses

I was brought to my senses. Just recently I went to a vocal jazz festival at Southwestern Community College in Creston. It was an experience that I look forward to every year. At school I am apart of the ADM Vocal Jazz Choir. It is a select group of sixteen people who sing a large repertoire of jazz, a'capella, and select ballets that require a much greater level of music ability. We perform about 20 to 30 performances a year and everyone is a different experience.

We sing for all of the home concerts, which are not as strict as some of the competitions we go to like State Jazz. State Jazz is where every vocal jazz group goes to compete for a division one, two, three, or four rating. This year our jazz choir received a high two, which is a great honor because only about ten schools in the state received a one rating. Another thing the ADM jazz choir performs at is the SWCC and Kirckwood festivals. These festivals are experiences that are indescribable.

We leave around 6 in the morning, along with about 25 other schools from all over the Midwest. When we get to the college we perform for upwards of 500 people and are watched by a professional group or individual. These groups come from all over the world like the Idea of North from Australia, The Real Group from Sweden, and Rajaton from Finland. We also saw m-pact from L.A. All of these groups go around the world performing and clinician festivals. Once we have performed we are taken into another room and clinic ed for about an hour and work with the professional group. This experience is awesome because you learn so much in that one hour and feel great walking out of the room.

The rest of the day is spent watching other choirs from all over. These groups are just as good as us or even better. Later that night we are invited to a performance by the performing group. These concerts are awesome and beat any concert I have ever seen by a world famous singer.

Once the concert is over and we have seen upwards of 20 schools perform we are on our way home at around eleven at night. It was a long day but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Well I would trade positions with a professional up on stage.